Oil-engine.



G. GRAY.

OIL ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 23, 1916.

Patented May H, 1918.

are.

GEORGE GRAY, OF STAMFOBD, GONNECTICUT.

OIL-ENGINE.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Gnoncn GRAY, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Stamford, Fair-field county, State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Oil-Engines, of which the following is a description in such full, clear, and exact terms as will enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to a vaporizing device for heavy oils in internal combustion or gas engines and to the manner of adapting the same to such engines. It is particularly useful in connection with the ordinary closed base two cycle type of engine though it is applicable, of course, to internal combustion engines of any kind.

The invention involves various features of combination and constructional parts all of which will be fully set forth hereinafter and particularly pointed out in the claims.

Reference is had to the accompanying drawing which illustrates as an example the application of the invention to the ordinary closed base two cycle engine which drawing is a. sectional view through the lower part of the cylinder and base with my improved attachment in position.

10 is a cylinder; 11, the base or crank case; 12, the piston; 14, the inlet port; 15, the inlet passage to the port from the base; and 16, the bafiie on the piston, all of which are of the usual or any desired construction.

17 is a body fitting screwed into the cylinder walls and communicating with the transfer passage 15. This has an oil connection 18 leading to its lower part controlled by needle valve 19; a hot'air connection 20 inward of the oil connection 18 and a water connection 21 (if desired) above the hot air inlet. The seat of the needle valve 19 is intermediate with the oil and air connections 18 and 20. The air connection has a ball check valve 21 preventing back movement of the air and the water connection 21 communicates with a water cup 22 and usual valve for regulating the amount of water which if used should be allowed to drip or drop in measured quantities into the charge as the same passes to the engine cylinder.

A nozzle 23 is extended from the fitting 17 across the transfer passage 15 into the inlet port 14 so as to discharge directly Specification of Letters Patent.

normal, is highly heated.

Patented May 1 1, 1918.

Application filed March 23, 1916. Serial No. 86,070.

control of the needle valve, passes through the pipe 24 and is discharged therefrom in the very mouth of the nozzle 23 where it mixes with the hot air (and the water if any is used) and passes into the working cylinder 10 against the hot ba-fiie 16.

The result of this, it will be noted, is that the oil in the pipe 2a is first atomized by the hot air passing through the nozzle 23 and if any water is admitted this is broken up into a spray and the whole vaporized body is impinged against the baflie 16 which, after the engine operation becomes Hence the mixture of air, oil and water is subjected to a violent mechanical agitation tending to atomize the oil and water and simultaneously to the influence of the very hot surface of the bafiie which results in partially or completely cracking the oil, disassociating the water and transforming the whole into a more or less fixed gas possessed of high thermal values. Simultaneously with the above described operation the action of the piston in the closed base (or other form of compressor if the same is nsed) forces a blast of air through the transfer passage 15 and this, entering with the fuel charge mixes with the gas as it is formed and constitutes the explosive mixture which is swirled through the working cylinder, forcing out burnt gases and taking its place in the cylinder, as the working charge all of which will be fully understood from previous gas engine practice.

It will be hereinafter fully pointed out that the current of air rushing through the port 15 and past the pipe 23 and nozzle 24 exert a suction effort in said nozzles which and which alone is depended upon to draw up and through said nozzles the air and oil constituting the fuel charge and, of course, the amount of fuel thus drawn is in direct ratio with the degree or amount of suction which is exerted in the nozzles by the inrushing air from the base of the engine (or other compressor if used). Now to regulate the suction exerted and hence to regulate the amount of the charge admitted to the engine I control the velocity of the air moving in the transfer port 15. This is preferably effected by a peculiar relief valve on the base 11 of the engine. This device includes opening check valve 525 seated by a spring 26 which nevertheless yields on the up stroke of the piston 12 to admit the air to the base of the engine and seats on the down stroke so that said air may be compressed. Now upon the degree of compression in the base depends the velocity of the air and this compression is controlled by a throttle valve preferably combined with the check valve in the form of an annulus 2'? which is adjustably placed around the body of the check valve inward of the valve itself and furnished with openings 27 adapted to more or less register with openings 25 in the body of the valve. Said annulus 27 has a handle 28 by which it may be manually regulated or if desired connected to the governor. Obviously as the valve annulus 27 is turned to close the openings 25 the suction in the base of the engine is'increased with a proportionate increase of the velocity of the air moving through the passage 15 and as the openings 25*- are uncovered the suction and velocity referred to are diniinished. With this increase or diminishment of the air velocity in the passage 15 a corresponding increase or dimiuishment ot' the amount or fuel introduced in the engine follows and hence a quantitative regulation of the engine is effected, as distinguished from the throttling or hit and miss system of regulation.

The hot air connection 20 before described leads from any suitable or desired source of heated air. In two cycle gas engine practice this is best obtained by joining the connection 20 with a acket or chamber around the exhaust pipe of the engine so that all of these metal parts become quite hot and the air passing through them is properly heated.

The oil connection 18 extends downward to an oil chamber 29 which has a supply pipe 30 and a float device 31 for maintaining the oil in the chamber at a fixed level. The top of the chamber 29 is open to atmospheric pressure and the pipe or connect-ion 18 extends downward into the oil in the chamber. From this arrangement it should be noted that the oil does not flow through the pipe 18 into the engine by gravity or by any pressure (fluid or otherwise) directly exerted on the oil, excepting alone the pressure of the atmosphere, that is to say the movement of the air from the transfer passage 15 through the inlet port ll and into the engine produces a certain degree of rarefaction of pressure owing to the constricted passages at this point, pulling the pressures there down somewhat below atmospheric pressure and thereupon the atmospheric pressure is permitted to exert itself in the chamber 2-9 to throw into the engine an amount of oil directly proportionate'to the degree of rarefaction at the inlet port. This is what is meant hereinbet'ore when it is stated that the inrushing air current sucks in the charge of fuel.

If in practice it is found dil'iicult to start the engine with heavy oil when the parts of the engine are cold, a gasolene starting device of any form desired, such as the usual priming cup and cock in the cylinder head may be employed in accordance with the teachings of the prior art.

Having thus described my invention what I claim is new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. An oil engine having means for maintaining a supply of oil below the inlet port and subject to atmospheric pressure, means for conducting the oil to the inlet port of the engine, and means for causing an air current to pass through the inlet port of the engine at the charging period in its cycle whereby a rarefaction of pressure is eii'ected at the inlet port and the pressure of the atmosphere forces into the port a quantity of oil dependent upon the extent of raret'action, and means for simultaneously drawing into the inlet port a body of heated air.

2. An oil engine having a working cylinder and piston and air compression means for communicating said air pressure to the inlet port of the cylinder at the charging period of the engine, an air supply nozzle leading from the atmosphere to the inlet port and a liquid fuel pipe lying in the air.

supply nozzle and terminating short of the mouth of the nozzle for the purposes specifled.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE GRAY.

Witnesses E'rirnn S. HUeHEs, Isaac B. Ownxs.

Copies ofthis patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

